What's a good budget friendly HOB filter that will fit in a 125?
- Thread starter Irecruitfish
- Start date
Yes, you need to maintain good water flow over the substrate to turn it into an effective biomedia. This is why I uninstall the biowheels to get more flow out of the HOBs, and install a circulation pump on one end to direct longitudinal flow. Canister can direct flow too, but I don't recommend because canister is leak prone and PIA to clean..
If achieving tank-wide circulation is what you want, a circulation pump can do a better job than a high gph HOB because the former can direct flow to stagnant areas, and the latter generates localized flow. Moreover, a high gph HOB is actually less efficient because it clogs up faster and prematurely.
Once upon a time, I used the highest gph HOB ever, Supreme Superking, for 10+ years before I switched to magnetic drive HOB. Superking has a direct drive motor that pumps 600 gph. But the high gph is useless over kill because the flow through filter area is only 12" by 4", same as Penguin 350 and only slightly larger than AC500.
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My pick would be the ac 110. My understanding is that more flow would be more water hitting the bio media. Even if contact time is less, the frequency at which the water passes through would work to more useful contact time.
My guess would be most of the aquaclear recomendations are based off of hear say or experience with older models, because through experience I haven't seen anything good about the modern models.
Honestly I don’t know what you are doing to the AC’s to make them loud? I have 5 AC’s on 4 different tanks all in the same room and the loudest they are is when the water level is low and the water splashes make noise.
I have a mix of old 500’s and the newer 110’s.
I’ve also never had to replace any parts on any of the filters, and I don’t treat them delicately when cleaning them. I don’t lube o rings. I’ve even used butter knives to flick aimpellers to get them moving when they gunked up and I was too lazy to clean them. Never had problems with them priming after a power outage....I am very loyal to AC filters and will not use other brands due to my experiences with the AC’s (been using AC’s for almost 15 years on and off my fish keeping hobby)
Take them out of the box? I've had 3 so far and no desire to own another. They were noisy new, noisy after every cleaning and would wear through impeller shafts regularly with or without sand, even replaced the impeller hoping that would shut it up.
I started using rc airplane stainless propeller shafts and they lasted a little bit longer, but not enough to make me keep the filters.
That sounds crazy to me haha
I’m not doubting your experiences at all, the newest AC I’ve purchased was within the last 2-3 years. They very well could have gone down in quality (as most companies do trying to source cheaper parts to make more money)
If so I would suggest you try and source an older used AC second hand as they really are a great filter!
Interesting. Every time there is a filter question, it turns into a debate on AC with its usual defenders. IMO, AC is a bad HOB with known defects. Read this
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
The OP asks for budget filters, and AC won’t fit the bill as there are better HOBs out there at half the price.
Aquaclear filter overflowed?
So my filter which i believe is a ac 50-70, was over filling and leaking all over the floor. Flooded my living room. Any ideas why it did this? Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
The OP asks for budget filters, and AC won’t fit the bill as there are better HOBs out there at half the price.
